master scheduling - aggregate

["Jeff Snyder" <jeffreygsnyder@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

   Hey Group
    
   I have a customer who can determine an aggregate volume of a family to be
   produced,  but can not determine the family part number breakdown. 
   They may have hundreds of part numbers in a family, and can only produce
   say 400 a month of the entire family.  They cannot master schedule to the
   individual part number, would never guess the right mix.  Nor will
   percentages work 'i.e. planning bills. 
    
   They do not schedule any production,or purchasing activities until the
   customer order is in hand, i.e. the customer order is quoted outside of
   std CMLT. 
    
   The question, concern is how to stop sales from overbooking the 'aggregate
   volume' for a family of final assembly  parts ?
    
   In the above example of 400 a month,  they would like sales to have the
   visibility of knowing what was booked on all sales orders for any item
   participating in that family so they will not over commit the 400 a
   month.  They would like the sales rep to be able to perform the ATP on the
   phone, to insure a good promise date, but not based on the part number,
   but aggregate demand compared to aggregate schedule for that family of
   parts.
    
   Has anyone written any such code, or is there a 3rd party pkg available. 
   Otherwise we will probably write something. Just wanted to check first.
    
   Thanks for your attention, and look fwd to your input.
    
    
   Jeff Snyder,  CPIM
   Mapics Consultant